


Smokeless Flame

by daisydiversions



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, fic on demand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-17
Updated: 2008-03-17
Packaged: 2017-11-10 02:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/461359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisydiversions/pseuds/daisydiversions





	Smokeless Flame

**Author's Note:**

  * For [haku_kaen](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=haku_kaen).



The end of the war was actually pretty lame in Toph's opinion.

Aang had always made it seem like there would be some great change to the world, a transformation back to the balance of the old days. Toph had, of course, never believed in such flowery words, but it was still disgustingly typical when pacifists turned out to be all talk and minimal results. 

The new Fire Nation was just a passing of the dictatorship to the next generation, and while Zuko had proven he wasn't so bad during the last stretch of their journey, he also had a history of poor, wavering judgment. He was prime and ready to become a puppet within the year and Toph was betting on his drab young bride to be the one pulling the strings.

It was all smoke and no fire as far as Toph was concerned. There'd most certainly be another war in her lifetime and that suited her just fine. Action was much preferred to these dull, cautiously happy days. 

Besides, chaos and threatening environments were good for business in Toph's gambling hall, Hotmen's Hazard, where dozens of poor souls were living it up under the flickering lights (courtesy of earthbending the wax) and floor shows (performed by Tai Li and Bonzo the Bear), while stripped of their measly savings. The euphoria of surviving would end quickly, she knew, and business would be slow unless she came up with another method of luring out the seedy underbelly of the city. Which she, of course, would.

All that tutoring in marketing and Earth business management wouldn't be anywhere near as wasted as her father had probably anticipated. 

 

After waking up around midday, Toph strode down the street to the lighter part of the city, and flopped down in her usual spot and gave her usual smirk to the owner of the tea shop, who already had her cup of Jasmine waiting for her. Iroh had the Pai Sho board ready and smiled benignly as she bent a black stone to the upper right star. 

Peacetime made Toph anxious and itchy for a fight, reminded her of days trapped in her family's richly furnished prison before she'd crafted the Blind Badger from her most secret heart. It made Iron slow and pensive of past regrets, thinking of ifs and buts revived from long faded hopes. 

But a kindred spirit was a welcomed deviation to feet resigned to feeling out liars and thieves, and hands made to smash together heads of swindlers and cheats. 

After some humming and hmphing, Iroh moved his piece with some degree of satisfaction and Toph couldn't help but smile around her cup. 

As slow and tedious as things could get, it wasn't so bad-- waiting and listening like a smokeless flame, quivering and tense like pressed springs.

 

Tomorrow, Toph would do the same thing all over again, drink tea with a dry old man and bash the heads of idiots who tried to cheat her before she cheated them, and this was as much daunting as it was reassuring. 

Maybe she was more suited to peace than she'd ever allow herself be.


End file.
